MS Word Formatting with the Meinrad or other fonts
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    image
    Whenever I use any of the music or chant fonts, there's always a lot of space above and below the clef (due to the size of the font). How does everyone put the lyrics up closer to the staff without putting the lyrics in a text box? I'm using MSword '03, although I could use openoffice if there's a solution there.
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    Can you put the music in a text box?
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    That's a just as much of a pain. Any solutions to keep both the music and the lyrics out of text boxes and inline in the document?
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    No, I don't think so. Make sure that you've turned off any extra spacing or paragraph breaks that might be appearing between those two lines; but otherwise I don't think there's any way to get one line of text to float on top of another (which is really what you're asking it to do, even though the part you want to float on top of is rendering as white) without using a box.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    All the extra spacing between the lines is off. That's just the space the font is taking up. And yeah, I'm sorta asking to have lines floating on top of each other. Shoot. Well... does anyone know of another free program that can be used to do what I want?
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,151
    LilyPond
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 756
    Ben,

    Have you ensured that 'line spacing' is 'single' for both music and text lines, and that 'spacing after' and 'spacing before' the music and text lines respecively is 0? These properties can be found in Format/Paragraph. I find the given settings work for Meinrad 48 pitch (music) and Times New Roman 10.5 (text).

    Alternatively, prepare the music and words in a score-writing product like Sibelius, export to a graphics format and insert into the Word/Open Office document.
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 756
    ... woops, just noted your refernce to 'extra spacing between the lines' - I assume that means you've already exploted the formatting options.

    FWIW, I've attached a couple of Meinrad samples. If that's not close enough & you lack Sibelius or similar, then you will have to resort to graphics manipulation.
    Maria.pdf
    6K
  • Fr. Matthew Spencer
    Posts: 100
    I used to get the right spacing in MS Word 2010 by using a combination of the spacing options in the Font and Paragraph dialogs. Line Spacing: Exactly, followed by a point size that is not much bigger than your chant font (depends though on which font you're using); adjust the Spacing Before to offset the line as needed. Finally, to adjust the notations so it's not clipped at the top or bottom, you adjust the position of the characters in Font dialog -> Advanced tab -> Position -> Raised/Lowered + point size adjustment as needed.

    I'm not using fonts directly much these days, and it's almost always with InDesign when I do but thisa used to work for me...
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    I've decided to leave behind MS word and try the free program scribus. I like it, and I'll post some examples from scribus soon.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,151
    LilyPond - the learning curve for one voice with text is minimal, and you can specify the font(s).
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Hmm... Scribus supports LP code right in the document. I might have to look into that. In the meantime, have any simple tutorials?
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 774
    Fonts have a default line spacing, which add just enough space above or below to be readable. Unlike most text fonts, the Meinrad fonts, whether square or modern, are set too high, leaving excessive amounts of white space above and below. You have to set the line spacing manually. In MSWord, format the music line so that the line spacing is just a little smaller than the size of the font. If your font size is 48 (good if your lyric font is 11-12 points), I'd suggest you set your line spacing at 44.

    With your cursor somewhere on the line of music:

    Format
    Paragraph
    change Line Spacing from the default Single to Exactly
    change At from the default 12 points to 44
    leave Space Before and After set at zero, unless you need the extra space for ledger lines above or below the staff
    adjust the size until it looks the way you want it to

    This is all much easier if you can set up a Style for music lines.

    The only reason notation with Meinrad is easy for me is because I spent many, many hours as a temp word processor learning the extended features of MSWord.

    PS. Regarding another post a while ago, aligning music and text only works if your WP program uses a true WYSIWYG display. Recent versions of MS Office have failed in this, and I have been forced to continue using older versions of Word. Someone please mention that, next time you're having a drink with Bill.
    in MSWord
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    thank you, but there's one problem here! the clef on the left needs that white space. i tried clipping the font, but it cut off the clef. I guess using the modern notation font in word is out of the picture ...

    that idea shoul work well with the chant font though...
  • mahrt
    Posts: 517
    I have another problem with St. Meinrad and Ms Word; I have been forced to use the latest operating system (OS 10.5); in this system, the St. Meinrad figures for the descending oblique stroke of the porrectus which comprises the interval of a third does not print, but rather shifts the selection of the font and prints a large character from that font. St. Meinrad gives directions for fixing this for a couple of the figures, but not for all that are a problem, and I have been unable to get it to work anyway. I have some hundred Mass programs, with the entire ordinary in chant notation, which frequently need revision, but with this situation, I cannot make the revision. Has anyone run into this problem? Has anyone found a solution?
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